MINNEAPOLIS—Everything about Brett Favre after the Minnesota Vikings’ 30-23 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday looked familiar except the uniform and his expression in victory.

Wearing his purple No. 4 jersey and an awkward smile, Favre hugged one Vikings teammate after another before he turned to face his beaten foe. For the first time on the same field with the Packers, Favre was glad they lost.
“I wasn’t out to prove anything,” a subdued Favre said. “I knew I could play.”
Favre honestly didn’t know how he would respond to the pressure he couldn’t ignore. He admitted only once before had he taken the field feeling so emotional. That was a Monday night game in 2003 against the Raiders one day after his father died. When Favre attended a team chapel service at 3 p.m., he surprised himself with the frequency of his prayers.
“I thought, man, I am losing it,” he said. “I was about as nervous as I’ve ever been going into a game.”
Did those emotions give way to any tears of joy after the win, he was asked?
“No,” he answered. “I’m too tired.”
Imagine how the Packers felt.
If Favre felt a little weird leading his new team over the one he defined for 16 years, it was only fitting for the oddest of occasions.
At the Park Tavern 10 minutes from the Metrodome, manager Phil Weber was still laughing about the life-size cardboard cutout of Favre one customer threw into a wood-chipper. A group of local Packers fans in search of catharsis and a cold beverage threw a party Sunday intended to literally shred any memory of Favre. One guy tossed 19 souvenirs into the machine.
“I think they wanted to bring some closure,” Weber said a couple of hours before kickoff.
Good luck with that.
After the Week 4 matchup billed locally as the biggest regular season game in franchise history, Jon and Kate Gosselin will find closure before Packers fans and Favre.
Favre going 24 of 31 for 271 yards and three TDs for a passer rating of 135.3 only will make Cheeseheads long for the quarterback more than they want to forget him.
“I hope Packers fans know how I feel about them,” Favre said in his postgame news conference.
Ambivalence was in the air. A woman wearing a foam block of cheddar held up a cardboard sign “4-Ever A Traitor.” A mob of green jerseys spontaneously broke into a chorus of “Favre sucks!” while waiting in the beer line. A silent auction opened bids for a Favre-autographed yellow Green Bay helmet at $750.
Closure?
Favre looked closer to the renewal of something special in the rivalry rather than the end of anything. Favre’s mere presence makes one of the NFC’s most heated rivalries boil over with intrigue.
He was the main reason the Vikings’ intensity level matched the hype and why the hosts took their seat alongside the unbeaten Saints and Giants as the NFC front-runners. As much as the Vikings’ win meant good news for the Bears, who moved ahead of the Packers in the NFC North, Favre’s display reminded us a sizable gap between the teams still exists.
This is why a team with a dominant defense and the NFL’s best running back waited until Aug. 18 for Favre to make up his mind. When Favre completes passes the way he did against the Packers, he completes the Vikings. He also makes the NFC North good enough, at least among the top three teams, to start a discussion about what is the best division in football.
In becoming the first NFL quarterback to beat all 32 teams, Favre looked like a near-40-year-old surgeon picking apart the Packers secondary with signature velocity and daring.
With Adrian Peterson being stymied (55 yards on 25 carries), he needed to be good.
Favre’s second TD pass, a 14-yarder to Sidney Rice, came after he froze the safety with his trademark pump-fake and put the ball in a window few NFL quarterbacks dare try to open.
On a 31-yard TD pass to Bernard Berrian, he showed the nice touch that always has complemented his fastball.
He outplayed counterpart Aaron Rodgers despite Rodgers’s numbers — 26 of 37 for a career-high 384 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. In a classy move, Favre sought Rodgers after the game to congratulate his successor for “the way he battled,” Favre said.
Rodgers had his first two turnovers of the season in the first half, and each turned into a Favre touchdown pass.
In fairness, Favre also had Vikings defensive end Jared Allen on his side rather than on his back. Allen overpowered injured left tackle Chad Clifton’s replacement, Daryn Colledge, for 4› sacks—one for a key safety—and a fumble recovery, putting Rodgers under duress Favre never had to face.
The extra time allowed Favre to throw how he did as a young Packer and celebrate in a manner that painfully reminded everybody in Wisconsin of those days too.
“It’s why I play the game,” Favre said of his celebrations. “It never gets old to me, even though I do.”
If he wasn’t hoisting an index finger in the air to signal No. 1 after a TD pass, he was pumping his fist with extra gusto that implied how different this game was emotionally.
So when Favre insisted beating the Packers wasn’t about sticking it to the franchise that didn’t want him two years ago, everybody knew better.
“It’s sweet, but it has nothing to do with revenge,” Favre said afterward.
If Favre meant everything he said, he would have spent Monday riding a tractor in Hattiesburg, Miss., instead of shredding the Packers secondary in the Metrodome.
After this performance, there’s a Minnesota bar that should throw another party in honor of Favre. But leave the wood-chipper at home.